Thursday, December 22, 2011

Captain MSNBC and the Game Masters

Dishonesty at it's best on MSDNC

It is true that most Republicans believe in Freidman’s mantra of “cut any tax you can, any time you can and in any amount you can.” Still one place we should not be cutting is Social Security aka pay roll taxes. Obama’s payroll tax cut has reduced funding to an already underfunded mandate, only further ensuring the insolvency of the program. It’s the only not borrowed source of revenue for the program. Despite that fact when Obama demanded continuing to underfund Social Security, which we oppose, we offered it to him for another year as part of a compromise.

When Obama called for extending unemployment insurance another year, which is also a bad idea one we mostly oppose and if, as Obama claims, the economy is improving shouldn’t be necessary. The holiday bump we always get saw the unemployment rate fall to 8.6%, still bad, but the number is a lie. You see the government only reports the percentage of people actively looking for work who are on unemployment insurance. When you report the total unemployed the number is 11% and 17% if you include the underemployed. These numbers are really bad which is why Obama wants the extension so he can use it to buy votes… Unemployment insurance also encourages people not to work by ensuring the incentives to find a job are not there. We strongly oppose indefinite unemployment insurance, yet we offered it up as part of a compromise.

What did we ask for in return? Jobs for the American people. That’s all. Oh, and cheaper energy from a friendly neighboring country. Canada has grown a pair and has been standing up to the eco fascists. They are pulling out of their economic rut by increasing oil production and they felt we should have first dibs at their products. The Keystone Pipeline is something we do want, even though it would make cheaper oil, and create possibly thousands of jobs, both of which would bode well for Obama’s re-election. See we’re trying to do the right thing here, but Obama doesn’t want to offend the Eco-Nuts so even though we agreed to give him two things we do not want he can’t even give us one thing we do want that would benefit him greatly.

Worse yet Senate Democrats created an alternate bill which kicks out the pipeline and extends the “tax cut” for a mere two months so we can “hammer out the details later.” John Boehner initially stood by the original version insisting we not kick the can down the road and we do a full year extension. He was right then. Naturally Boehner is such a weakling that he has caved. Two months is nothing. At minimum businesses and even the IRS would need a full quarter year just for the paper work. Altering the payroll tax every couple months is impractical and absurd on all accounts!

Yet, predictably as ever, all the news outlets proclaim “Republicans block payroll tax cut!” Obama’s poll numbers go up, ours go down and we’re being accused of being uncooperative… again… even though we caved… again. The President once again got exactly what he wanted and yet he still bemoans this fantasy gridlock of his. Oh how I wish we did have gridlock. Maybe if we had a house speaker with a spine we would have it and could at least stop Obama from further damaging the country and especially by under funding a program so many Senior Citizens depend upon.

Tax cuts should be to the income tax, sales tax, property tax, but part of the problem facing entitlements is underfunding. Believe me, you don’t want this payroll “tax cut.” Now as a Libertarian I am admittedly not fond of welfare programs, and I agree with Rick Perry that Social Security has become a Ponzi scheme.But I have also found that most people do not want to see the program ended, and perpetually denying the program much needed funding, as Obama has insisted upon, and John Boehner caved in to, will only hasten the program’s collapse. You, of course, aren’t getting that side of the story. When Paul Ryan recommends program saving reforms to Medicare he is portrayed as throwing Grandma off a cliff, when Obama decreases funding to medicare by $500 billion through Obama care and reduces funding to Social Security through his “pay roll tax cut” he’s portrayed as being a hero. How typical of the news media, Captain MSNBC and the game masters, playing games that the American people are sure to loose.

Maybe what we need is an occupy style protest of the local and national news agencies until they agree to tell the American people the truth for once.

About Me

I am a Libertarian leaning Conservative in the vein of Hans Herman Hoppe, and FA Hayek. I am the author of "The Great Compromise: Getting Past The Emotional Nonsense Dividing America." I am absolutely opposed to government growth and interference in free markets. However I am not fanatical about my beliefs and in fact try my best to approach politics with a "moderate tone." I like to write about religion, entertainment and politics and write material designed to encourage individualism, entrepreneurship and free market solutions to solve the problems our State and Federal governments keep creating.